Vanguard: Settling In
by USSExplorer
Summary: After the battle the surviving crew of the Vanguard try to work out where they are, and how to get home. A slow build crossover. Not going to have much interaction with B5 early on as expand on the Vanguard and her crew.
1. Picking up the Pieces

1: Picking up the Pieces

Bridge:

MacLeod groaned as he pulled himself up, using his station's console to help him as one of his legs was shattered just above the ankle. "Did anyone get the number of that cube?"

"I think it may be plastered onto your hull." Muttered Isha as she clutched her shoulder, while lying on the floor nearby.

He reached down to help her upright, but doing so caused her to hit the shoulder of the edge of the console, thus making her grit her teeth to avoid screaming out in pain.

"Broken?"

She nodded, "Sure feels like it." she took a look around the bridge, "Though I think I got off better than your ship."

MacLeod turned his eyes to look over the bridge. "MAY!"

Ensign Ku was slumped over the helm console unmoving as MacLeod dragged himself down to her station, using his phaser rifle as a crutch.

He reached over and checked for a pulse, praying thankfully when he found one. "May, are you alright?"

Ku groaned as she lifted her head off of the console and looked up at him through a blood-soaked face. "Erik? What happened?"

"We survived, beyond that…" he turned and saw that the Ensign from the science station was checking on the Captain, who lay un-moving on the floor in front of his chair.

MacLeod pressed the intercom control on the helm console.

"Sickbay, this is the bridge, we need a medical party up here asap." No reply came. "Sickbay?"

"Sorry, we're trying to pick up the pieces down here."

"Where's Doctor Fallon?"

"Dead, along with most of the staff and some patients. I'm transferring the EMH to the bridge, how bad is it?"

"The Captain's down, we'll need a med-team up here to collect him as I suspect the transporters are out."

The voice harrumphed in agreement, "Wouldn't be against it. I'll get back to you as soon as we get things sorted down her, sickbay out."

MacLeod turned to face the wreck that used to be the bridge, "Computer, activate the EMH."

A hologram appeared in the centre of the bridge, "Please state the nature…." The EMH trailed off as he saw the destruction around him. "What happened here?" he asked as he knelt down beside Willard.

MacLeod shared a look with Isha as he answered, "We go into a little brawl."

"Indeed. And just who did you fight with this time?"

"The Borg."

The EMH looked up from Willard at MacLeod in mild shock, "Really? Well, I'm surprised you're not all dead or worse.."

MacLeod laughed, but stopped as a pain shot up his side, "You and me both." He looked up at Isha, "Speaking of which…"

She nodded and used the sensors but just stared the readings in dis-belief. "That can't be right."

"What?"

"Well according to these readings, there are no starships within range."

"WHAT?"

"That's what your sensors are saying."

"On-screen."

Isha gave a futile laugh and pointed at the screen, "I'm not a miracle worker."

MacLeod turned and looked at the view-screen, or at least, what was left of it as a support pylon had fallen and smashed into the screen, thankfully not piercing the hull. "Okay, forget that and stick that on the repair list."

"At what number?" asked Ku groggily, "two hundred twenty-seven, or three hundred forty-three?"

MacLeod gave her a cold stare. "Real funny."

Ku looked at him through wide eyes, "Who's kidding, I've got about three hundred reports from the computer of problems that need fixing. Not counting the lack of ships outside."

MacLeod looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "Well, on the bright side there's no Borg on board."

He wasn't sure which hit him first, Ku's hand as she slapped his side, or the piece of debris that Isha threw at him. "Did I really just say that?"

As if on cue, the turbo-lift doors opened part way, causing every able bodied person to reach for their side arm and aim at the door.

"Is anyone still alive in there?" Came a voice from the turbo-shaft.

Isha and Ku fixed MacLeod with cold stares as they holstered their side-arms.

"This is Commander MacLeod, who's that?"

"Lieutenant Havaris sir. I've got a Romulan here with me, Centurion Sahen with me."

Isha lowered her head for a second before looking at MacLeod and mouthing. "Tal Shiar."

MacLeod tilted his head and tapped his phaser rifle. Isha smiled as she considered his suggestion for a moment before turning and helping the two men with the doors.

MacLeod left her too it and pressed the intercom again, "Bridge to engineering, please respond."

"This is Lieutenant Varik. Am I to assume that the Captain and First Officer are incapacitated?"

MacLeod groaned lightly, '_Why did that guy have to answer_'. "The Captain is down, Shar is dead along with two other crewmembers. How are things down there?"

"Where to begin. Half of the crew is dead, including Commander Silsbury. The other half is busy trying to repair all the problems that we have just in engineering. The warp core is off-line, but the generators are working for now. I would recommend against moving the ship until we've had time to examine all the various components. So if you could kindly ask the Borg not to attack us for the next five point three days that would be appreciated."

MacLeod looked at the viewscreen, or what was left of it, and tried not to laugh. "Well we seem to have '_lost_' the Borg or now."

"Indeed. Well, so long as you refrain from your usual form of antics, I may just be able to get us going to limp to the nearest Starbase."

Isha and Ku both tried, unsuccessfully to hide their smiles at the Vulcan's remarks.

"I'm sure I can keep from starting a fight for a week Lieutenant." Growled MacLeod. "Can you tell me what is working?"

"Not much. I believe that the Valkyries and other shuttlecraft are still intact, but I will send a detail there once the preceding one hundred and thirty-four more critical repairs have been completed."

MacLeod groaned at the number. "What is working?"

"Not much. Life support, just barely, and emergency replicators, but I'm afraid not much else. The only major system that seems to be working within acceptable norms is the transporter."

"You're kidding me!"

"Vulcans do not '_kid_' Commander, now if there is nothing else I will get back to repairing the ship." Without waiting for a reply, Varik closed the commlink.

"The transporters?" muttered Ku as she looked up at MacLeod.

"Will wonders never cease." MacLeod turned to face Isha, Sahen and Havaris. "Right, seems we've gotten a break. Once the transporters are confirmed to be working safely, beam the Captain to sickbay and transfer the EMH back there after he tends to us. We need to work out how many people are left able to help us, and in what state the ship is in. Havaris, go with Sahen and conduct a deck by deck search, or as best as you can. Check every room and storage space. Make sure you find everyone and that we don't have any '_stowaways_'." Havaris nodded and turned as Sahen saluted Isha before following.

MacLeod limped back to his station, "Sub-Commander D'Mora, for now I'm making you my XO. I need you to co-ordinate with the rest of the ship and get a damage report asap." Isha nodded as she started to use the Starfleet controls like a natural officer.

'_I'll have to ask her about that later.'_ MacLeod turned to face Ku and Drake, the young science officer. "Ensigns, I need you to get in contact with someone. Starfleet, the Romulans, hell, I'll take anyone except the Borg. And I need you to work out just where the hell we are."

The Ensigns nodded and started to work from the helm console.

MacLeod looked down at his console at the readiness, or lack thereof, of the starship.

"Me, I'll go get some rocks, just in-case I need to fight a passing ship."

* * *

><p>Note: How the <em>Vanguard<em> got so damaged is covered in the brief story Vanguard: Over Green Fields and Drones

This is a x-over, though will not state which universe for the first few chapters, as currently writing out two such stories (B5 or ME). Once settled on 1, will use that as the main story here. Hopefully can update every few weeks at the latest.


	2. Making Sense of Chaos

2: Making sense of Chaos

* * *

><p>Conference Room:<p>

MacLeod pushed some debris of the table and settled into the lead chair. He wasn't comfortable with doing so, but with the Captain in critical condition in sickbay, he had no choice.

He watched as the other people filed into the room and sat down.

"Ok, let's see what we've got to work with. How many crew do we have?"

The senior doctor left, a Betazoid named Kestra Judal, spoke up. "We've lost two hundred and three crew members, including Commander Shar, Lieutenant Commander Silsbury and Doctors Fallon and Moliq. I've got another sixty two in or near sickbay, with about twenty, including the Captain, in critical condition."

"I've got around twenty members of my crew on-board as well." Stated D'Mora. "Most are assisting where they can, though we are denied access to several locations, for obvious reasons." She gave Havaris a predatory smile, knowing the Bajorian security officer hated having to work with her troops.

"Well we do have _some_ secrets on-board." Muttered Havaris, the acting tactical officer.

"Ok, what about main power?"

"The warp core is still off-line, as I indicated earlier it will take at least five more days before we can safely try a restart."

"So we have no way of reaching any support."

Varik, as senior officer left, the new de-facto chief engineer, tilted his head slightly, "Actually we do. The flight bay took some damage, but we have two Peregrines, twenty Valkyrie-class fighters and eight shuttles that are in an acceptable condition. The rest have been designated for spare parts until we can reach a repair dock. Plus, rather incredibly, the four worker-bees are still usable, and are currently carrying out a survey of the outer hull. I will have that report for you in three hours."

MacLeod nodded; thankful most of their fighter complement was still intact. There was no point deploying them against the Borg, so they'd had to shake, rattle and roll with the rest of the ship during the battle.

"Ok, we'll get some of the crew to take a few out and do some recon of the system we're in." He turned to Ku and the science officer, Ensign Drake. "Um, where are we exactly?"

The two young ensigns share a look before Drake answers, "Actually, we're in the Romulus system."

"So where's the Empire?" asked D'Mora.

"It's not there." Stated Drake nervously, not liking the piercing look from the Romulan. "As far as we can tell, no-one has ever lived on the surface of _this_ Romulus and Remus was destroyed several thousand years ago by planetary bombardment."

D'Mora looked down sadly at the table as she digested the news and pondered how to inform her crew.

"What about Starfleet?" asked Varik.

Ku shook her head, "I'm afraid I'm getting nothing on Starfleet channels. Hell, I haven't gotten any signals at all from subspace, there seems to be a large amount of background interference from an unknown dimension of subspace and an unusually high level of tachyons."

"Ok, well, for now we're on our own then." Stated MacLeod as he looked at each person in turn.

"It gets worse…" started Drake, not enjoying the looks that statement got. "I've run a stellar check and while most known stars are accounted for, there are few problems."

Such as?"

Drake activated the holographic display the showed the main waypoint stars for the Alpha and Beta quadrants. "This is the stars as they were just before we _'vanished'_." Several stars flashed blue. "And these are those same stars as we can find there here." A second set of yellow lights appeared, all were close to the original positions, but none were they should have been.

"Have you managed to figure out why the stars are out of place?"

"Stellar drift. Stars move slowly over time, so I had the computer work out why the stars were out of alignment." He paused as the map altered to merge the majority of the star indicators, though some still refused to move into the predicted positions.

"And?" prompted Judal.

"Well, the best reason that the computer could come up with was that the date was wrong. It suggested that the date was the Earth year 2260."

"2260?"

Drake shrugged, "Give or take ten years." He waited for the resulting emotions to settle before continuing. "And it gets worse. According to the quantum signature of the local stellar objects, we're not in our own universe anymore."

"What?" Screeched Havaris as the meeting descended into mayhem.

MacLeod buried his head on the desk while others shouted and cursed in dis-belief. How where they to get home, was it even possible? Could they find help in this new, strange universe?

He sighed and lifted his head taking in the desponded looks of his fellow crew members. "Ok, so we're up that infamous creek without a paddle, and I suspect we've sprung a few leaks." Thankfully the bad joke seemed to work. "So the question then is how do we go about figuring out the local setup?" He left the statement hanging, hoping someone else would have a good idea.

"Commander, I do not believe we can." Started Varik. "To do so would be a violation of the Prime Directive."

"Ah, the mythical Prime Directive." Muttered D'Mora sarcastically, while finger-quoting.

"Indeed Sub-Commander." Varik choose to ignore the Romulan's remark. "We cannot afford to interfere in the development of the local galaxy. Though I am unsure if it would be worse if this is a universe with a Federation or without."

"It does not apply if the locals are space faring."

"Actually Ensign Ku, it does. If we have technology that could upset the local balance of power, then we are duty bound to avoid interference in the local politics."

"Hah! Federation nonsense. You people love to interfere any chance you get."

"I think." Started MacLeod, to try and bite off the reply that Varik seemed to be cooking up. "I think, that for now, we put that problem to the side and concentrate on our immediate situation."

He stood and turned to use the display behind his seat. "Right now, we're half blind, without any real power or weapons. So we need to fix this ship and work out what's nearby." He turned to Varik. "I'll need you to send me that full damage assessment as soon as you can, and for once, please be as through as you need to be."

Varik nodded, ignoring the slight about Vulcan meticulousness. "It will be done."

"Ensigns, Sub-Commander , I want you three to pick viable locations in the neighbouring systems and arrange the _Peregrines_ to scout them. Also, launch four Valkyries and assign them as a Combat Air Patrol."

"A CAP?" asked Judal disbelievingly .

"I'm afraid so. Without long or medium range sensors, and a near total lack of power, we'll need them as our eyes and ears, and heaven forbid, as our defensive force too."

He looked around the table, "Anything else that comes to mind."

"Personal effects in crew quarters." Havaris was obviously not comfortable with this topic, but felt it need to be discussed. "As my teams are searching, we keep finding a lot of personal effects and I've been asked watch to do with it."

MacLeod rubbed the bridge of his nose, he did not want to deal with that just now, but the matter was being forced. "OK, things like pictures will be labelled group 1 and are to be stored with care as soon as we can find a place for them."

"I'd suggest a smaller cargo bay." Suggested Ku. "We could use it as a place of remembrance." The others all nodded at the idea. It wasn't a pretty thought, but they'd need somewhere to grieve for their lost friends and colleagues, provided they lived long enough in this universe to do so.

"Do it. As for the rest of the stuff, two groups. One shall be things that seem to have sentimental value but no real other use. These things can also be placed in the cargo bay for now. The other things shall be stored somewhere else. We'll work out what to actually do with those two groups later."

MacLeod looked around the table, "If there's nothing else, let's get back to work."

The group stood and left, all except D'Mora, who stood and walked over to stand next to him, looking out of the window.

"Another universe?"

MacLeod tried to give her a game smile. "Well, I always wanted to explore strange new worlds."

D'Mora laughed. An honest, true laugh and MacLeod felt better for hearing it. "Sometimes you are beyond infuriating." She leaned over so she could whisper in his ear. "Others I'd swear you were a Romulan and want to pursue you." She kissed him gently on the cheek then turned and left before he could get his bearings.

MacLeod watched her walk out and sat back down in the chair. "Why do I always fall for the unattainable ones?" he asked himself with a smile.

Since things seemed to be quiet, and nothing else was planned for a few hours, he decided to rest minutes, but as soon as he eased back into the chair, he collapsed into a deep sleep.


	3. Signs of Life

3: Signs of Life

* * *

><p><em>Vanguard<em> Bridge:

D'Mora stood at the tactical station and found herself trying not to laugh. Somehow she found herself acting as the first officer on a Federation starship, and to cap it all off they were in another universe, a universe without a Federation, or for that matter a Romulan Star Empire.

She knew that the remains of her crew were dealing with the news about their location as well as she could hope, but still better than most of the Starfleet personnel, but even those supposedly weaker species were coping well.

She suspected that the need to fix the ship was taking priority for now and that many crew, Romulan and Starfleet, would need to get some serious counseling soon after.

Still, if they made it back, she'd have an excellent report for High Command about the internal workings of this modified _Akira-_class cruiser/carrier and the _Valkyrie_ fighters, Starfleet's counter to the Reman designed _Scorpions_.

"The _Griffon_ has just entered range." Stated a Bolian Ensign working the partially re-built Ops station.

"Very well, have them transmit their reports then clear them for landing and refueling. I'm sure Commander MacLeod will have new patrol vectors for them soon enough."

"Yes ma'am."

D'Mora was impressed with the behaviour and professionalism of the crew, a compliment to their Captain. While she knew nothing about him, her former commanding officer, Captain Mirok spoke well of him, and she could see that he was a fine commander from the behaviour of his crew.

She scanned the report as it came in and forwarded it to MacLeod, who was holed up in the conference room. His decision to not use the Captain's ready room was something she would not do, but something she expected from him.

She paused in her scanning of the report as something caught her eye. She brought up the image files attached to that part of the report and stared at the first image in curiosity.

In a nearby system, the _Griffon_, one of the _Peregrine_-class heavy fighters, had detected dilithium, several other useful minerals, and a strange structure.

The structure looked four giant pylons, each about 3 kilometres long. If it hadn't been for a pure random event, then their purpose would have been unknown. While the _Griffon_ had been scanning the Oort cloud of the system for dilithium and other useful materials, a huge energy spike had been detected from the pylons.

The sensors showed the pylons funneling energy into opening some kind of sub-space tear from which a vessel as large as the _Vanguard_, had emerged.

The _Griffon_ had discreetly scanned the ship, and found it lacked even the power of an older _Constellation_-class cruiser ship and its weaponry posed no threat to the fighter.

D'Mora looked over the information about the pylons and the alien ship again. "Ensign, you are in command." She turned and walked towards the conference room to talk with MacLeod about this development.

* * *

><p>Sickbay:<p>

Judal looked around the sickbay. As much as she hated to admit it, the EMH was really a great help. Without him she was sure either she or another doctor would have made a mistake and cost someone their life.

Right now, no-one was in need of any major surgery so most of the staff was trying to catch a few hours of sleep. Judal was busy looking over the Captain's medical file.

She'd been in surgery with him for six hours and had him stabilised but he seemed to be slowly slipping away, and there was nothing that she, or any other doctor, could do.

Like a few other crew-members, the Captain was suffering some kind of breakdown of his brain signals, with each passing hour two or three percent less activity was taking place in his brain. She estimated that he had only a few more days before he was brain-dead, maybe only one of those would he have enough cognitive ability to actually talk, but if she gave him anything to allow him to do so, it would hasten his demise.

She hated this feeling of uselessness; she'd been training to become a doctor when Betazed had been invaded by the Dominion. During that time she'd come to know MacLeod as he'd been in-charge of a small resistance cell in her home town and she'd acted as the cell's nurse, even though she as only a trainee nurse at the time.

After the planet had been freed, she'd joined Starfleet medical and had found herself posted to the _Vanguard_ six months ago, much to her surprise finding MacLeod on-board already as the tactical officer.

"Sickbay to Bridge, I need Commander MacLeod to come down here as soon as he has the time, it's concerning the Captain."

"Acknowledged, I'll pass along the message." Came the short reply as the link was closed.

While she hated to put the decision on his shoulders, she couldn't make the call for the Captain so she'd leave it up to MacLeod and hope he could handle it.

* * *

><p>Conference Room:<p>

D'Mora buzzed the room a few times but got no answer. Slightly worried she opened the door and found MacLeod sound asleep, his head resting on his arms and jacket as he slumped forward onto the table.

She smiled; glad he was getting some rest. While she was tired herself and knew she could go on longer than a human without sleep, she realised that the extra load of commanding a ship in an unknown location was a lot more than the young officer had expected to have to deal with.

She closed the door and walked back onto the bridge.

She walked down to the helm and touched Ku on the shoulder as she leaned down to whisper to her. "He's sleeping, make sure no-one disturbs him for a few hours."

The young Ensign nodded gratefully as she complied with the order.

D'Mora knew that Ku and MacLeod was close, and was slightly jealous, much as she'd never admit it to anyone. She'd ask MacLeod about it at a later date, just to know exactly where they stood.

She still sometimes wished he'd been born a Romulan so things would have been easier. After their time together during the war, D'Mora had spent a full year being analysed and scrutinized by High Command and the Tal Shiar before they allowed her to re-join the fleet, with a chaperone, centurion Sahen. Her complications during that year hadn't helped and thinking about what had happened still hurt. She wished she could tell Erik about that, but he'd never understand.

Silently she re-took her station and sorted through the reports that she had to pass on to MacLeod.

* * *

><p>Engineering:<p>

Varik stared dispassionately at the warp core. The former chief had had an almost romantic relationship with the engines, but Varik could not understand how other species could get so attached to a machine.

He turned as an Ensign came up to him with a report, "Lieutenant, we've managed to get almost everything ready for a warp-core restart. We just need to run some stress tests on the antimatter injectors and a few parts of the nacelles."

"Excellent work Ensign. How soon do you think until we can attempt a restart?" Varik knew the answer, having easily computed the figure himself but felt the Ensign had potential, and so tried to push him with every assignment.

"I few hours, four at the most I'd say."

"I believe that is accurate. I shall inform the Commander that thanks to the work of your team we will have warp drive before my estimates."

The Ensign smiled and walked away, grateful for the praise and glad to be doing something to help him not think about their predicament.


	4. The Big Bad

4: The Big Bad

* * *

><p>Ship's log, Stardate 56477.4, Lieutenant Commander Erik MacLeod commanding:<p>

_It's been four days since we arrived in this new universe and we're only just now planning to restart our warp core. Though Lieutenant Varik told me five days, he and his teams have managed to get the core online a day earlier, and not a moment too soon. I think everyone is fed up eating ration packs as I've had to limit replicator use to ship repairs while we've been surviving on our fission generators._

_Thankfully our fighter compliment was relatively unaffected by either the battle with the Borg or our dimension-jump so we've been using them to scout out the local star systems._

_It looks like we can find resources nearby, so after the warp restart, I plan to order the ship cleared, funerals held and then carry out a massive mining operation._

_We have been unable to detect any subspace signals which suggests that this universe uses a different form of inter-system communication. We have seen several ships transverse to a sub-dimension in a nearby system using a giant 'jump-gate', so we suspect that this universe lacks any ftl travel except via this subspace plane._

_The ships coming through this 'gate' are strange. On the one hand they obviously have ftl of a form, but in normal space, the ships we've observed are slow, ugly monstrosities. We've seen several freighters come through, almost all lacking artificial gravity and they have a large amount of armour, but it is primitive. The _Vanguard's_ ablative armour is light-years ahead of what they have, and what we suspect the military for these people have as well._

_A few hours ago a military ship came through. Again, it was big and ugly and even more inefficient with it's power than the freighter, yet the energy it could generate is sufficient to concern us that, given our current situation, a few good shots would be a problem, though given it's almost comical lack of manoeuvrability, I suspect it would take nearly ten ships like that to even concern us at present. Though if they have bigger, and better, armed ships things could be interesting._

_Unfortunately, the Captain's condition hasn't improved and I now have to make a horrible choice: Allow him to slowly slip away over the next few days, or give him an injection that will allow him to be mobile again, but will mean he'll be dead inside of forty-eight hours._

_I know what I would want, so I hope he agrees with my decision, and I pray one-day I come to terms with what I have to do._

* * *

><p>Sickbay:<p>

Willard slowly opened his eyes, blinking rapidly at the dim lights.

"Captain, welcome back." He turned to see MacLeod standing next to a junior doctor and the EMH; that was not a good sign.

"Report Commander." MacLeod handed him a PADD and gave a brief summary, slowing down his speech.

"Nearly three hundred dead, thirty more still in sickbay. We have massive structural damage resulting in the warp core being offline for the last four days. Fighter compliment is acceptable and deployed for recon and protection. Romulan survivors are integrating into the crew and helping in non-critical locations. No ships, friendly or otherwise in the local system as we're in a parallel dimension."

"Very good Coman…" Willard dropped the PADD and stared at MacLeod. "What did you say?"

"We are in a universe with a different quantum signature than our own."

"Starfleet?"

"No sign or any communication on any known subspace channel. We've detected several vessels in a nearby system though. We believe they use tachyons to communicate, but with have avoided opening communications until we feel the ship is in a state worth y of presenting itself."

"That bad?"

"Worse."

Willard sank back down onto the bed, what little energy he'd had was draining from him quickly. "Ok, I'll read through your reports then get back to you in an hour."

"Yes Sir. Also, the doctor has something that you need to hear. I'll leave now and when I return I'll accept whatever punishment you decide."

"Very well Commander, get back to the ship. Get us ready asap." Willard watched as MacLeod walked out of Sickbay before turning to the EMH. "Well doc, what's so important that it made my tactical officer run away?"

* * *

><p><em>Peregrine<em>-class fighter _Jindo_

NearbySystem

Ensign Mok looked down at the timer one more time. They had another three hours to patrol the system. Since the _Griffon_ had viewed the enemy ships coming into the system via the 'jump-gate', the orders for the recon ships had changed to long-range scans.

Commander MacLeod had decided that was better to avoid the local powers until the _Vanguard_ could regain an acceptable level of combat readiness.

"How we doing BB?"

BB, specialist Briana Blake, looked up for her scanners to answer. "Nothing of any real interest, we've got six planets, four are gas giants while the inner two are too close to the star to be suitable for any real mining for now, not that they have any real resources that we couldn't gain via a replicator."

"OK, and there's no 'jump-gate', so we can assume that the locals don't visit here often either."

No sooner had Mok stated that fact the ship's sensors detected a large vessel 'jumping' into the system.

"That'll teach me, running passive scans." He waited for a few seconds as the data was processed and displayed." Looks like some kind of large carrier vessel. There's around 10 small, one or two man shuttles which appear to function as fighters attached to various docking latches in two con-centric rotating rings. There's another rotating ring so it seems this particular craft uses the rotation to simulate gravity near Earth-norm. They look very primitive, no match for a type-nine shuttle, never-mind one of our fighters or _Peregrines_."

"So typical of the ships we've so far seen the locals use. They seem to be a strange mix of techs. FTL capable but sub-light, they're no better than pre-Federation, but I suspect even an _NX_-class would be able to handle most of their ships one-on-one."

"Maybe your…" the console bleeped again. "Hold up, something is happening. They watched as a new, massive larger ship 'shimmered' into existence. It moved towards the first ship and fired a single, continuous beam, easily slicing the carrier in half.

"Holy….." Mok looked down at the energy readings. "That thing is massive, about one kilometre long. Energy readings from the beam are similar to early twenty-third century phaser arrays. No idea if that's full power but it's massively beyond anything else we've seen."

"So guess we've just seen the biggest and baddest guys on the block."

"Hopefully, and hopefully they're friendly or we're going to have a major problem." They watched as the massive spider-like ship scanned the wreckage before tractoring in a small section then 'shifting' away.

"Ok, activate full scanners and let's see what we can learn about that weapon then we'll finish up our survey and return. Something tells me the Commander is not going to like this."


	5. State of the Union

5: State of the Union

* * *

><p><em>USS Vanguard<br>_Conference Room:

Willard watched as the acting senior staff filtered in and sat down. While he wasn't overly comfortable with a Romulan being involved but he trusted MacLeod's judgement and understood that it was required given to their current situation.

"Alright let's get started." He turned to MacLeod, "First, as of this date, I'm issuing a field promotion to Lieutenant Commander MacLeod to the rank of full Commander. Once my time is up, it is pre-set that his security clearance will be changed to Alpha-three, allowing him access to the data needed to fully captain a federation starship."

MacLeod didn't look too happy at the news, but accepted that it had to be done.

"As for the way you have all handled things, I can only say that I am grateful to have such a brave and courageous crew." He turned to look at D'Mora. "I'm sure Captain Mirok would say the same if he was here." D'Mora smiled slightly, sad at having to think about the memory of her now dead commander and other ship-mates. "Now, how are the repairs proceeding?"

"The warp drive is on-line, however we will only be capable of warp two-point-five for now. Without a complete overhaul I do not believe we can risk going any faster."

Willard nodded. "Well done Lieutenant, your people have done an excellent job." Varik nodded in gratitude. "What about the local space?"

"The nearby systems are lacking in any real signs of habitation." Stated Ku, who had taken over the duties of the operations manager at MacLeod's request. "The remaining science staff have come up with an initial analysis of the 'jump-gate', as they've taken to calling it. The report has been forwarded to both you and Commander MacLeod for future reviewing."

"Ok, defensive capabilities?"

MacLeod grunted as Havaris started to speak; "Shields are fried; we'll be lucky to get them back online without at least a six month overhaul, in a dry-dock. As it is, we can't repair them to any real degree."

"What about the S.I.F.'s?" asked a worried Ku.

"The integrity fields are on a different system which, while damaged, is working within acceptable parameters." Stated Varik, since it was more an engineering question than a security one.

"Ok, shields are out." Confirmed Willard. "What about armour and weapons?"

"Phasers came back online with the warp core. We're basically out of torpedoes, maybe a dozen photons, and a handful of trans-spatials, but that's it for now. Given time we can siphon off anti-matter from our reserves to replace the losses, but until we know how long we're going to be stuck here, I'm recommending against that."

Willard looked at MacLeod and they shared a brief look, "Very well. But once we're under way, siphon off enough antimatter to take us back to fifty photons, just in case."

"Aye sir. As for the armour, we should be able to fully deploy it right now, but given to the damage to our outer hull, my team suggests we'll only have about fifty to sixty percent effectiveness."

"How soon could it be brought up to full power?" asked D'Mora.

Havaris shook his head, "Without a dry-dock, I'd estimate a year plus. And even then, only to maybe eighty, eighty-five percent at best."

"So we really need to find a repair dock…." Willard left the sentence hanging to see what these junior officers who had been thrust into a situation that even he had no idea how to deal with.

"The asteroid field." Everyone looked at Ku who started to sink into her seat until she looked at MacLeod and he nodded for her to continue. "Well, the asteroid fields contain significant amounts of Dilithium and other key elements, and several look small enough for us to, in theory, be able to mine out and convert into a small base."

D'Mora smiled at the young ensign, "Crafty, the asteroids were once used by the Empire for mining in our early days, and by hollowing a medium sized one we gain a hidden base. And as the asteroid field is far enough from the planets, we are unlikely to be detected by any passing ships."

"Indeed." Stated Varik, trying to not look at the Romulan sitting across from him. "If we are to be stranded here for a significant amount of time, it would allow us to time to rebuild the ship, and if we are here for a large amount of time, even consider building a few smaller starships."

"Are you sure that's wise?" asked Drake, who, until now had been silent. "We have barely enough crew to man the _Vanguard_ and you're talking about building more ships!"

"Actually ensign, an _Akira-_class needs only a minimum of one hundred and seventy-five to run at an acceptable level of efficiency. Given that, including our 'guests', we have two hundred and sixty-two crew members, we could field one or two smaller class ships, say a _Nova_ or _Defiant_ class, and suffer acceptable losses in crew efficiency while expanding our defensive capabilities."

"Well, that's something that you'll have to consider at a later date." Stated Willard, trying to keep the conversation on track. "For now we'll scan the asteroid fields to find suitable candidates for initial mining and, possible, future adaption into a repair dock. For now, we need to discuss the local ships and establish rules of contact."

"Will the Prime Directive still be in effect?" asked Havaris.

Willard looked at MacLeod, "I cannot say if it should or shouldn't be applied, as I feel that it will need to be discussed on a case-by-case basis by Commander MacLeod and the rest of you. I will however state that it should be used, as it was in Kirk's time, as a guideline."

Willard watched as the others all looked at MacLeod, and he withered under their gaze. Willard knew he needed to talk to MacLeod, he knew how un-ready and un-willing his new XO was for this. He just hopped that he had the time to try and prepare the young officer for the burden he would have to carry.

"Now, let's have an overview of the locals."

Everyone turned to Havaris and Drake. Havaris spoke first, as the images of the initial ships that had been detected appeared on the viewscreen.

"Most ships, while equal to or larger than the _Vanguard_, are primitive. Energy readings from the biggest compare to the old _NX _-class, but with weapons comparable to even older classes."

"So not a threat then?"

Havaris shook his head, "Theoretically if they caught us with our shields and armour down, and were able to carry out a first strike, ten to one. If we have our shields up…. Target practice at best, a waste of time at worst. Though, we have to assume that their military ships rate a lot higher up, but without a scan of such ships, we can only make educated guesses."

"And the spider?" Ku tried not to shiver as the image appeared on the screen.

"Energy readings comparable to a _Constitution_-class, but we believe that was a low level shot since we would not use a full powered phaser shot in the same situation.

"So upper range…"

"Comparable to our phasers at best."

"Not good. So what else do we know about that ship?" Asked D'Mora. Havaris turned to Drake, to allow the ensign to take over the briefing.

"Not much as the _Jindo_ only used passive sensors, as per your orders. What we do know is the ship is bio-organic in nature and is seemingly alive as we only detected one, maybe two, life-forms inside."

"8472?"

"Similar but different. Unfortunately, we did determine two things that are worrying."

"Only two?" muttered Ku.

"One, the ships appears to be thousands, if not tens of thousands of years old. I say appear, as the readings were inconclusive. However, if the readings were correct, then the second life-sign was human."

There was a few gasps as the senior staff as they imaged a human piloting that ship. Everyone stared at the screen in shock and disbelief.

"Brilliant." Muttered D'Mora. "No Vulcans, nor Romulans, nor Klingons but you Humans are here. Just bloody brilliant."

"So…"

"Yellow Alert, yellow alert. Captain to the bridge."

Everyone stood up and filed out of the briefing-room, worried at the sounding of the alarm, and hoping it wasn't the black-spider ship.


	6. First Contact

6: First Contact

* * *

><p>Bridge:<p>

"Status" Willard sat down in his chair and stared at the partially repaired viewscreen.

"Energy signature of a jump detected inside the system." Stated the duty officer, who was sitting at the ops station. "Valkyries two and seven are moving to examine, with orders to hold at three light seconds."

Willard gave a subtle nod to the Lieutenant and turned to MacLeod, who was now sitting beside him. "Good decision Lieutenant." He turned back to face Havaris. "Deploy the armour and bring phasers online."

"Only the main is array is working. The ventral and nacelle arrays are still offline. Engineering says they'll have them working by sometime tomorrow."

"I believe I said it should be online by seventeen thirty." Stated Varik from the engineering station. Havaris ignored the comment, and merely gripped his console to fight the urge to reply.

Willard and MacLeod shared a brief look of amusement. Varik was known to have riled up MacLeod a lot with his typical Vulcan completeness.

"Well, one array will have to do. Helm, bring us out from behind Remus, one quarter impulse."

Slowly the _Vanguard_ moved out from behind the shadow of the long-dead homeworld of the Reman people.

"Readings coming in."

"Onscreen." The image was fuzzy, but the sheer size of the ship was undeniable.

"Holy Hannah, that's big."

"Length is one thousand, three hundred meters. Power readings are low, comparable to most ships detected so far. She's actually got a rotating section to simulate gravity. Her crew compliment is five hundred and thirty-seven, all human. Her name is the _EAS Magellan_."

"Deploy the armour." Ordered MacLeod, he turned to Willard to explain. "If humans here are that primitive, then we can't let them see the ships' name. I'd also recommend recalling the fighters, at least until we can remove all Federation Standard from the external surfaces."

Willard nodded, it was a good idea and it would allow them to hide their identity from the locals until they decided to become a larger part of this dimensions galactic community. "Do it."

The unmistakeable sound of the armour activating and covering the hull could be heard.

"The first two fighters have landed; second pair will land in the next minute."

"Status of the _Magellan_?"

"She's launched fighters of her own. They're primitive, even without shields I doubt even a dozen of them would threaten even one of our _Valkyries_."

"The spider would wipe the floor with them."

"Here's hoping they don't know each other."

Willard lightly coughed, his signal for the chatting to cease. "Bring us towards them and keep our acceleration below two hundred m-s-squared, even if it's really, really slow. Let's not tip our hand just yet."

"Aye sir."

Time crept along very slowly as the two ships inched towards each other, though the _Magellan_ didn't realise it was entering a first contact situation.

"They've seen us. She's turning, very slowly." Havaris stopped as his console bleeped. "Incoming signals, I think."

"You think?"

"It's a tachyon signal. Since we know all Earth languages, and her hull writing is in English, we have a base to work from but, we're having to adapt our comms relay to accept tachyon signals."

"OK, well let's play alien shall we? Use running lights to flash primary numbers up to eleven. Wait for their reply then transmit to them on their frequency, but don't use Standard. Use…." Willard looked at MacLeod, since he lacked the knowledge of what other races were still on-board the hip.

"Bolian. We have several crew-members from their race we could use as ambassadors if the need arose."

Willard nodded for Havaris to do so, and smiled at MacLeod. The commander was a solid tactical thinker, and it seemed he was starting to apply that thinking to command, if only he could accept it without fear of his genetic history.

Willard also wondered how the rest of the crew would react once they learnt about exactly who the commander was, and where he came from.

* * *

><p><em>EAS Magellan<em>

Bridge

"Captain, we've got an unknown ship coming out from behind one of the twin planets."

Captain Terry turned and looked at the main display as an image appeared of the alien vessel. "Anything on record?"

"Negative Captain, it doesn't conform to any known ship in our databanks and we're unable to detect any surface markings."

"Energy readings?"

"Confusing. One second the energy readings are almost off the scale, the next they're less than ours. I suspect they're not trying to hide their power, but that we just can't fully comprehend their technology."

Terry stood and walked over to the science station to examine the readings for himself.

"What's their speed?" Asked Commander Smith, the ship's XO.

"They're out pacing us easily, about the same as a Minbari cruiser, but I think that's just to make us feel better." Answered the Lieutenant manning the weapons systems. "Given to her shape and built, she must have artificial gravity, so she should be able to move much more efficiently than that, given to the possible power readings."

"Dexter, have a look at this." Smith walked over to examine what the Captain was looking at. "There is no sign of any external ports bar the engines."

"How is that possible? Organic tech like the Vorlons?"

"No, reading is metallic, though the computer has no idea what kind of metal it is, but it's jamming and scattering our scanners with ease"

"Are they jamming us?" Smith asked the science officer.

"No sir. If they were we'd never be able to even detect them. This is light years beyond what the Minbari use as we could at least target them when their stealth tech was off."

Terry walked back towards his seat in the centre of the bridge. "Very well, initiate first contact protocols. Transmit in both English and Interlac."

The Bridge crew waited as the language and greeting files were transmitted.

"We have a reply of sorts." Terry and Smith watched as the outer skin of the ship peeled back to revel a small section of an inner hull. A light became visible in the now exposed section of inner hull and flashed.

"Prime numbers." Muttered Smith.

Terry nodded and released a breath he didn't know he was holding. "OK, our language files have been received, though it looks like they might need time to translate them so they've used the universal language to open a dialogue."

"Incoming signal." The officer looked up in mild shock. "They're transmitting on our own frequency, but I don't understand any of it. Forwarding to the language techs."

Terry smiled, they'd made contact with another advanced alien species, and this time, unlike the Minbari debacle, things appeared to be starting off on the right foot. Now all they had to do was wait for one ship to translate the other's language files, though that could be hours and the _Magellan_ still had to carry out a survey of this system. Even if it was on the far side of Centauri space, they were still going to examine it for possible mining and/or colonization.

So long as the newcomers didn't have a previous claim to the system.


	7. Shift Change

7: Shift Change

* * *

><p>Romulus System<p>

_USS Vanguard_

Bridge:

...

"Commander, we have something entering the system."

MacLeod turned and looked at the Ensign currently manning tactical. "What 'thing'?"

The ensign shook her head, "I don't know. It seems to have some kind of basic cloak. It's small, one or two people at best, so that, it's technology and the distance make it hard to detect, though it is moving closer and is still well outside the scanner range of the _Magellan_."

MacLeod activated the display on his chair and examined the small craft. It looked too small to be a major concern, but the fact it was trying to hide from sight automatically made it a threat. "Keep an eye on it."

"Aye sir."

He turned back to look at the Magellan. It had launched several fighters and shuttles to scout the system, though what it was scouting for eluded him. Drake had suggested it was looking for the strange substance that was used in the 'jump-gate', but several such legs were seemingly carried by the Magellan. The young scientist had theorized that the ship would build and activate a new 'jump-gate' in any system unclaimed that showed potential for mining or colonization.

MacLeod had suggested to Willard that they lay claim to the Romulus System as it had almost every resource they needed, and seemed to be unused by the races of this galaxy. Willard had smiled and just told his young XO that it was his decision to make, and Willard would only provide advice from now on.

Willard had taken the news of his limited time left well and was grateful for the chance to put as much as he could of his affairs in order, and prepare as much as he could for helping MacLeod to lead the Vanguard and her remaining crew, especially if they ended up stuck in this universe for any great length of time.

"Any reply back from the _Magellan_?"

"No sir. Guess they're having problems with Bolian." MacLeod couldn't see the Ensign's face, but he knew she was smiling. Bolian was a grammatical nightmare with nine basic tenses.

"Give them another hour or two then send a short message in Standard saying we have broken their language ciphers."

"Aye sir."

MacLeod turned as the turbo-lift opened and gamma shift came onto the bridge, led by Sub-Commander D'Mora.

"I am here to relive you." She saluted as though still on a Romulan cruiser.

MacLeod stood and returned the salute, much to his amusement, and the bridge officer's shared confusion. "I stand relieved." D'Mora smiled, thankful he was trying to help her adjust to 'Starfleet' approaches by allowing her to keep some of her Romulan rules.

MacLeod walked over to the turbo-lift with the ensigns from the helm and tactical.

"Why did you do that sir?"

"A long story Sasha. I'll tell you over a drink in the cafeteria."

"Ayr sir." MacLeod turned to face Ensign Sasha Fourier, the new deputy security chief when he noticed D'Mora walk over to the Helm.

"Ensign Ku, could I talk to you in private."

MacLeod never heard the answer as the doors closed. "Ah hell." he muttered to himself, now worrying just what they'd share with each other.

* * *

><p><em>EAS Magellan<em>:

Bridge

...

Captain Terry looked at the monitor displaying the image of the small alien craft once again. Neither ship had moved much in the four hours since initial contact and some of his crew were starting to get nervous.

While the alien ship was much smaller they were, the sporadic energy readings, and ease with which it carried out course corrections to match the _Magellan_ was a sign that it could run rings around his vessel.

"How are the tech boys doing?"

The officer manning the science station, Lieutenant Jacobs, shook his head. "They're really struggling. It seems these people use at least six grammatical tenses."

"Six?" muttered Commander Smith. "That's more than even the Drazi or Narns use. This could take days to break. Why can't these aliens ever do things the right way?"

Terry looked at his XO, once again wishing that the Commander was somewhere else. His Earth-first views were worrying, but a large percentage of Earth-Force seemed to think the same way, which was forcing Terry to seriously think about leaving the service when the _Magellan_ returned to Io in six months' time.

"We have learnt that they use an atmosphere almost identical to our own." Said Jacobs, trying to soothe over his superior. "Eighty two percent oxygen, fifteen percent c-o-two. So once we sort out their language, we can hopefully visit their ship."

"Bet it stinks worse than a Pak'ma'ra ship." Muttered Smith as he walked away from Jacobs.

"Well, while we're sitting her, our ships are carrying out the scans of the system." Terry had moved over to a secondary science station to examine the data as it came in. "Those twin planets both suffered GLE events sometime in the last one to two thousand years, but the contaminate matter in the atmosphere suggests that they won't be suitable for colonization anytime soon. Wouldn't you agree Sara?"

"Aye sir." Answered Ensign Sara Connors, who was manning the station. "There are significant signs of useful minerals in system, so a future mining effort might be worth it, but the distance and location make it an unlikely venture for the Alliance." She paused as she turned to face the Captain. "Still, if this is the edge of their space, it may make sense to establish a gate here and share custody with them. A way for us to, potentially, open access to their markets and technology."

Terry smiled; glad to see that at least some of the younger Earth-Force personnel were open to learning from aliens. He turned as the hatch opened and a small group of officers entered the bridge. "Alright, alpha shift stand down. All senior officers are to get some food and rest, but stay prepared as we're still in a first contact situation."

All the bridge officers with the exception of Smith walked towards the hatch, glad their shift was over.

As soon as the door closed Smith walked over to the Lieutenant now manning the weapons and sensors. "Franks, do you think you could pierce their armour to get a detailed scan of their interior?"

Franks looked over the readings then tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile. "I think it could be done, if we focused all of our scanners on a small section of their hull and fired our main guns at the same spot. At this range we don't even have to worry about the targeting computers."

Smith nodded then whispered quietly, so no-one else would hear. "Better make it look like a 'misfire', you know how 'uneducated' the captain is about aliens."

"Aye sir."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** This story might slow down as I really need to plan 2259 (S2) fully, or at least the 1st 6 months as they are slow on the show and don't have access to the Technomage trilogy. (Should I add them in or just let they go beyond the veil?)


	8. Filing in the Blanks

8: Filing in the Blanks

* * *

><p>Romulus System<p>

_USS Vanguard_

Conference Room:

Ku followed the Romulan and, for now, her superior officer, into the briefing room. D'Mora sat near the middle of the table and Ku did likewise, on the other side of course.

"Now Ensign, I'd like to ask you a few personal questions, but if you don't want to answer or feel I'm pushing too far, just tell me." Ku nodded in acceptance and D'Mora continued. "What is the nature of your relationship with Commander MacLeod?"

Ku knew the question was coming, as she knew a little about D'Mora's backstory with MacLeod, but still she didn't feel overly comfortable being here with the Romulan.

"He's my mentor, almost like a big brother. Nothing more" She waited to see if D'Mora would ask before continuing. "As you know, when things were going really bad for us against the Dominion, Starfleet drafted all third and fourth year cadets into active service. They were assigned to core systems for patrol details, freeing up other ships and crew to move to the front. Again, as you know MacLeod was assigned to the Betazed system, and became trapped behind enemy lines after the system fell to the Jem Ha'dar."

"I was there little one. I know this part."

Ku shrank in her chair for a second before straightening up. "Yes you were, but you wanted to know, so let me tell the story my way." D'Mora bowed her head, conceding the point, and Ku saw a smile creep onto the Romulan's face. "Well, after the war, all surviving cadets came back to the academy, and as most had been spared any fighting, they had no problems. However, Comma…. Erik struggled.

"I arrived at the academy the following semester but I had joined for revenge, not exploration. My father was killed by Cardassian raiders during the attack on Betazed. I signed up for Starfleet right after but I only entered the academy once the war was over. At that point I returned to being a very quiet, reserved and frightened young girl.

"One of the instructors decided that pairing up new, struggling cadets with the returnees who were having… difficulties. The thinking was that it might help both cadets, so I was paired with Erik. It didn't go well at first."

D'Mora tried, unsuccessfully, to choke out her laughter. "Yes, you don't exactly seem to fit together."

"Yes, well we helped each other through that year. And no, I never slept with him, even though we're close and discussed pretty much everything, we never even kissed. Happy?"

D'Mora suddenly realised that this young, nervous human had turned the tables on her. Times like this, and her suggestion in the briefing, told her that MacLeod was having a good influence on the young girl.

"I am neither happy nor sad by what you have told me. I just wanted to understand you and your relationship with the Commander. If we are to be stuck here, I need to know who you are, and while I trust his judgement, I need to decide for myself what your abilities and skills are."

"If you say so Sub-Commander." Ku had a very slight smile on her lips as she watched the Romulan. She found it easy to read her, as many of her mannerisms mirrored those of MacLeod's and she knew a lot about her from her adventures with MacLeod on Betazed from both MacLeod and Judal. "Is there anything else you'd like to know about me or my 'relationship' with Commander MacLeod?"

"No, that will be all. Thank you Ensign."

Ku stood and started to leave, but just before she reached the door she stopped and looked back, "May I ask you something?" D'Mora nodded. "Do you love him?"

Ku never got her answer, but smiled to herself as she left the Romulan staring at her with a look mixed of anger and confusion.

* * *

><p><em>USS Vanguard<em>

Captain's Ready Room:

"End recording." Willard had, after five hours finally finished recording all the messages he needed to leave. "Computer, deliver last message to Commander MacLeod in forty-eight hours, and attach holodeck program Willard-alpha-one." The computer beeped in response.

Willard looked over at the books and paintings he kept in his ready room. He'd already decided to turn them over to MacLeod and hoped that the Commander would learn from the books as much as he had.

He stood and moved until he was standing front of the painting; it was an image of the early twenty-first century ballistic submarine _HMS Vanguard_ surfacing. Underneath was the original plaque from that old Earth sub, bearing the same motto as his ship did. While other ships had famous saying or quotations from the various worlds of the Federation, all ships and submarines to bear the name _Vanguard_ carried a simple but apt motto; 'We Lead'.

Willard laughed sadly at how true the motto had become for his ship, but he knew that whatever the future held, the ship and crew would look after each other.

The _Vanguard_ had survived the Cardassians, the Jem Ha'dar, the Romulans, the Borg and even a dimension jump, he knew she'd look after those of her crew still left.

"Bridge to Captain Willard."

He touched his comm-badge, "This is Willard, go ahead."

"This is Lieutenant Havaris. Something is happening with the _Magellan_ that I think warrants your attention."

Willard frowned, not sure how such a simple, though undeniably massive, ship could trouble the _Vanguard_. He turned and walked from his ready-room onto the bridge, noticing Ensign Ku exit the conference room.

"Report."

"We're getting a slow energy build-up from what we believe is their main weapons array."

"Threat analysis?"

Havaris snickered before he answered. "Minimal at best. Even with our damaged armour and hull fractures, I suspect they'd need at least a forty or fifty second continuous burst, without us moving of-course, to actually pierce the armour." D'Mora exited the conference room and moved to sit beside Willard.

"OK, so suggestions on how to respond?" Willard watched as D'Mora stared daggers into the back of Ku.

"The _Griffon_ is waiting on the edge of the system." Stated Ku as she turned to face the Captain, totally ignoring D'Mora. "We could have them warp in and carry out an emergency landing."

"Interesting." Willard looked at D'Mora. "Sub-Commander, your thoughts?"

D'Mora forced herself to smile. It was an idea she would have suggested as-well. While she was angry at the young human for her earlier questions, she could not deny that the child had potential. "An effective exercise in terror without us having to display any real power."

Willard chuckled softly, "Maybe not how I would have put it, but accurate no the less." He turned back to Ku. "Ensign, as this is your idea, you send the order. Lieutenant Havaris, let the landing bay know we're carrying out a combat landing for the _Griffon_."

Both officers nodded and went about their business.

Willard grinned a little as an idea came to mind, "Ensign, once the _Griffon_ has landed, move us directly into the path of the _Magellan_ and match their speed with reverse thrusters."

"Should I use only use the thrusters to move into position sir?"

"No, one-quarter impulse if you please ensign. Let's show them just how out-classed they really are."

"Aye sir."

D'Mora leaned over and whispered to Willard, "Devious Captain, and an excellent demonstration of power."

"I aim to please Sub-Commander. He whispered back. "And it saves wasting a phaser shot."

"I see now why Captain Mirok thought so highly of you."

* * *

><p><em>EAS Magellan<em>

Bridge

"Commander, the systems are ready for a deep scan." Stated Franks.

Smith smiled as he turned to face the main display. "Very well, power up the starboard guns to full power." Smith sneered at the alien ship, how it just sat there, like it wanted to be squashed by his ship.

"Weapons ready."

"Excellent, target the point where the light was."

"Aye.." Alarms sounded.

"Collision alert!" screamed the flight officer.

"Report!"

"An alien fighter just appeared in our path!"

"Emergency braking!" Smith turned to Franks, "Where in the hell did it come from?"

"No idea, one second it wasn't there, the next it was."

"Let's see it." Smith watched the display as the small fighter-sized craft shot towards the alien ship at an alarming rate.

"They're going to crash.." muttered someone behind Smith. He never replied as everyone watch in disbelief as smaller craft flew over the top of its mothership, pulled a insanely high-g turn and slipped into the gap at the rear of the ship even as the alien armour pulled back to revel a pair of landing bays.

They watched in shock and horror as the fighter passed through an energy field, into the bay; then stood viewing helplessly as the armour re-sealed over the bay.

"How long did that take?" Smith heard himself mutter.

No answer came as suddenly the small alien vessel shot forward and parked itself directly in front on the _Magellan_, no more than a kilometre from touching the much larger ship, while matching their speed in reverse.

"What is the hell is going on!" Demanded Terry as he stormed onto the bridge.


	9. Last Call

9: Last Call

* * *

><p>Romulus System<p>

_EAS Magellan_

Bridge

"So, would someone care to explain to me why the alien ship is now parked directly in-front of my ship?" Terry stormed towards his chair, knowing exactly who was to blame, but not a why. "Commander?"

Smith pulled himself back up. He wasn't going to let this alien lover blame him for the aliens' dangerous behaviour. "An unknown fighter flew across our bow and docked with the alien vessel. They then moved directly into our path."

"And we did nothing to cause them to do such a thing?"

"No sir. The only thing we were trying to do was carry out a detailed scan of their vessel."

Terry settled into his chair, wondering how his XO had managed to potentially incite another first contact into a war.

"Captain, we're receiving a signal from the alien ship!"

"On speakers."

"_This is the Federation starship _Vanguard _to the Earth Alliance ship _Magellan_. Could you kindly tell us why your weapons array was powering up and targeting us a few minutes ago?_"

Terry turned and tried not to growl as he spoke to his XO. "Commander, you have one minute to explain before I have you relieved of duty and escorted to your quarters!"

* * *

><p>Captain's log: Stardate 56480.9: Captain Joseph Willard commanding<p>

Additional date: 16:00 August 10th 2258 Local Time

This will be my final log before I officially turn over command to Commander MacLeod.

I have been awake now for thirty eight hours and I can feel things starting to slip away from me. Doctor Judal has told me that in the next two to three hours I will have to return to sickbay so I wish to file one last update in-case the ship and crew are able to return home.

While the commander's choice of an XO is strange, it is one I agree with given to the situation and the level of comfort that seems to exist between the commander and Sub-Commander D'Mora.

D'Mora and her fellow Romulans have settled in well to the ship's day-to-day running, but I am sure that because of the uniqueness of the situation and the amount of intel that they will be able to take back to the Imperial Command if the ship can return to our universe.

The ship still has whole sections sealed off due to damage from various problems relating to the battle with the Borg and the dimension jump.

Starfleet has records of many ships jumping or detecting alternate universes but normally they are close to ours. This one is different.

According to the Captain Terry of the Earth ship _Magellan_ the Earth date is August tenth twenty-two fifty-eight meaning we've not only travelled to another dimension but back to the time of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. I wonder if they, or at least Kirk and McCoy, exist in this universe. We now know that this portion of the galaxy is divided up into four or five major powers and a large number of smaller races, with the smaller races having formed a loose alliance and all these races have embassies on a station called Babylon Five.

I have decided that it would be best if we established an embassy there, if the ship is to be stuck here for any significant length of time that the Bolians and Andorians will act as the Federation and establish a small presence on this station.

The _Magellan_ is currently deploying a jump-gate – funny that it's really called a jump-gate – and they have traded us maps and beacon frequencies for the civilian jump gates to get to Babylon Five and move around within the Earth Alliance.

They seemed shocked that we have no concept of hyperspace, but we managed to convince them we had the ability to travel at a very high percentage of light speed and accepting the effects of time-dilation.

Shockingly, it seems that ships can travel in hyperspace at speeds equivalent to warp nine-point-five, and that the other races can go even faster. I suspect that with our higher sub-light acceleration and speeds and our vastly improved sensors, that once we have scanned hyperspace that we will be able to travel at an even greater speed.

I have promoted Ensign Colin Drake to Lieutenant and named him as chief of the science department, unfortunately the _Vanguard_ didn't carry a large number of science staff even before the battle of Romulus.

Drake has a plan in place to scan and map hyperspace for the surrounding ten light years with modified probes. And he hopes we can develop our own hyperspace to real-space travelling system so we can move without having to run across alien ships or being tracked back to this system.

Addendum:

The more I view this spider ship, the more it worries me.

There is something about it which is malevolent almost evil but as a Starfleet officer I shouldn't judge an alien by how it looks.

The captain of the _Magellan_ send us images of the main warships of the major and minor powers but none even look remotely like the spider. I suspect that the race it represents is either a very new, or given to the fact it is organic and what our scans suggested, it's very, very old.

For now, I have recommended that it; and ships like it are to be avoided at all costs. Better safe than sorry.

It has been an honour to command the _Vanguard_ for the last three years, and serve on her for the last six. I know that Commander MacLeod will look after the crew and protect them with his life, he just has to accept who and what he is and represents and use it talents fully.

I know that he will be a good captain, but I don't know if he's fully ready right now. He is only twenty-nine, and while not the most experienced officer left, he is the senior officer so he is the best choice. Lieutenant Varik is not suitable to command, nor is any other senior or deputy officer who is left.

I feel that this new universe seems poised on the precipice of something, and if the _Vanguard_ is stranded here long term, then I know they will do as this ship is meant to do, and follow the basic tenant of Starfleet and the Federation: to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no-one has gone before.

Oh god, I can't believe I just said that.

Anyway, if Starfleet command ever reads this log then know that I support any decision made by Command… Captain MacLeod and I know that the ship and crew will uphold the guiding principles of Starfleet and bring honour to this ship and her history.

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><p><strong>AN: Sorry for the delay, just having lots of personal/professional problems/issues to deal with right now. I'll try and update as I can for both current stories and have no plans to abandon them so fingers crossed once the issues are out of the way I can get back to more consistent writing.**


	10. Dearly Departed

My apologies for the delay on both this and the ME/ST variant but my life, both personal and professional has been chaotic/troubled for the last few months.

I will continue this story, and it should settle into a schedule of an update at least once a month from Sept/Oct on.

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><p>10: Dearly Departed<p>

Romulus System

_USS Vanguard_

Cargo Bay 2:

MacLeod stood at the podium and looked at the crew standing around in the hanger bay. They should have used the rec-room but it was still way down the repair list, sometime next week according to Varik's new deputy, Lieutenant Sarq. MacLeod still found the idea of a Tellarite and a Vulcan working that close together amusing.

Slowly he scanned the eyes of every person in the room, the pain and suffering was now being allowed out after a week of fixing the ship, and it showed.

"We have lost so many, and know that even more of our friends and loved ones died fighting the Borg in our galaxy that I honestly don't know what to say, or how to comfort you." He paused and looked down at the list of names on the padd on the podium.

"I wish I could guarantee that we will get back home, and that it would all be worth it, but I can't. All I can promise is to do everything in my power to make that happen and keep you safe from the dangers in this universe." He paused, thinking of the giant spider-ship and fought off the shiver creeping up his spine. He looked into the eyes of his bridge officers.

"We have been battered, we have been bruised but we have not been broken. We stand tall and we will survive and grow strong and whatever this new universe decides to throw at us, we will not back down from it. We will protect each other, survive and grow strong.

"We will find a way and forge our own path. This is the _Vanguard_ and we will lead the way!"

He looked around again; the heads of the crew were up now. While it was clear that everyone was still hurting, he could see a glimmer of hope now in the expressions of many of the crew assembled.

He looked at the crewmen standing and the door and gave a nod. The crewman blew on the whistle he had, and in time honoured tradition, the sharp distinct sound called everyone to attention.

MacLeod looked stood ram-rod straight as he spoke; "From the stars we come, to the stars we return. From now until the end of time. We therefore commit these bodies to the deep."

"Captain Joseph Willard."

"Commander Shar."

"Lieutenant Commander T'Vor."

"Lieutenant Commander Stuart Silsbury."

….

Personal Log: Stardate 56487.1

Local Date: 23:30 August 12th 2258

Two hundred and sixty-eight names. Two hundred sixty-eight dead crewmates. Almost my entire first and second security teams. Seventy percent of the medical staff is gone and sixty percent of the engineering staff are dead…

All xenobiologists and anthropologists are gone, not that we had many to start with, so the best people to figure out the new local species are gone.

Only good news is most of our pilots are fine…. Least we can still fight…

How can I protect these people? I'm not ready. I don't know how…

I'm not even thirty and now I have to command a starship lost in another dimension. Until this jump I'd only ever had command of the bridge for a few days total…. Oh god what do I do?

I don't want this. What happens if I become like my ancestors? What happens when the crew find out about my family? My history?

Two hundred and sixty-two crew are left…. One hundred and seventy-four Humans, a few dozen Vulcans, an equal number of Romulans and Andorians. Smaller numbers of Tellarites, Bajorans, Bolians, Betazoids and a handful of other minor Federation races….

Even a joined Trill….

And they all look to me to lead them… How?

On Betazed it was easy.

Kill the Jem Ha'dar until they were all dead or you died yourself.

Nice, simple, easy.

This… gods what do I do? How are we going to get back home? What happens if we can't find a way and months become years?

All the counsellors are dead…. Seventy percent of the medical staff is gone… Did I say that already?

Oh god… what Do I do?

He looked up and paused the recording and the door sounded. "Enter."

She walked in only a few steps; the room was dark, with the only light coming from the open terminal and the planet Romulus outside. "Erik…." She looked at him; the pain in his face was clear to see.

Without saying a word she moved next to him and wrapped her arms around him.

He never said a word, didn't offer any resistance and she pulled him into her arms.

"What do I do? How do I lead them? I can't do it, I'm not ready!"

He didn't cry openly, but she could feel him sob as she gently rocked him in her arms.

"It's ok. You'll know what to do. I have faith in you."

"Why? How?"

"Because I trust you. I've seen your heart, as you've seen mine. I'll be here for you as you were there for me."

He didn't say anything, he just cried softly against her shoulder.

She remembered when she'd cried like this so many years ago, and the secret he'd told her as he took her into his heart.

She'd been shocked; though if it was more that he told her than what he said she did not know, but she knew then he would always be there for her.

And now she could be there for him.

As she'd stood in the cargo bay and watched him read out all the names of the dead crew she knew he was putting on a hard face, but she knew him well enough to know that he was dying a little inside as he read those names and it hurt her to not be able to take his hand.

She knew he needed to be strong for the crew but she could clearly see that he was hurting more than them as the weight of the ship came to rest on his shoulders.

After the memorial service, she'd watched him leave as soon as he could and waited for as short a time as she could to avoid suspicion and the rumours that she knew where going around about them.

She didn't care about those rumours; he needed her and she was there.

For a long time they just sat there; he let his pain and worries out and she sat with him, providing an anchor for him as he drifted in his personal sea of torment.

She had no idea how long it she had sat there when he finally lifted his head. It hurt her to see him in so much pain, but she waited him for to talk first.

He looked at her and smiled. It was a sad smile but an honest one.

He leaned in close and kissed her cheek. It wasn't romantic; it was merely a mark of how close they were.

"Thank you."

She smiled and stood slowly. "No need."

He stood too, and this time wrapped her in his arms as a brother would a sister. "Still, thank you. I'm glad you're here with me."

"Wish I wasn't." They both laughed gently.

He brushed a strand of hair from her face and smiled. "I'll get you home, or die trying."

"Home is where you make it." She squeezed his hand before turning and walking out, calm now that he was ready to protect them and lead them, whatever may come.


End file.
